Rapid Determination of Complete Distribution of Pore and Throat in Tight Oil Sandstone of Triassic Yanchang Formation in Ordos Basin, China

This study aimed to investigate the complete distribution of reservoir space in tight oil sandstone combining casting slices, field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), the pore-throat theory model, high-resolution image processing, mathematical statistics, and other technical means. Results of reservoir samples from the Xin’anbian area of Ordos Basin showed that the total pore radius curve of the tight oil sandstone reservoir exhibited a multi-peak distribution, and the peaks appeared to be more focused on the ends of the range. This proved that pores with a radius of 1–50,000 nm provided the most significant storage space for tight oil, indicating that special attention should be paid to this range of the pore size distribution. Meanwhile, the complete throat radius curve of the tight oil sandstone reservoir exhibited a multipeak distribution. However, the peak values were distributed throughout the scales. This confirmed that the throat radius in the tight oil sandstone reservoir was not only in the range of hundreds of nanometers but was also widely distributed in the scale approximately equal to the pore size. The new rapid determination method could provide a precise theoretical basis for the comprehensive evaluation, exploration, and development of a tight oil sandstone reservoir.